Aluminum tubular furniture and methods of making the backs and seats thereof



July 24, 1962 B RADUNS 3,046,005

S. ALUMINUM TUBULAR FURNITURE AND METHODS OF MAKING THE BACKS AND SEATSTHEREOF 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 13, 1959 INVENTOR. Solomon B.Rc1dunsATTORNEY July 24, 1962 s B. RADUNS 3,046,005

ALUMINUM TUBULAR FURNITURE AND METHODS OF MAKING THE BACKS AND SEATSTHEREOF 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 13, 1959 INVENTOR.

on B. du'ns BY 9 ATTORNEY ilnited rates Patent Ufihce 3,046,005 PatentedJuly 24, 1962 far-E 3,046,005 ALUMINUM TUBULAR FURNITURE AND METH- UDS3F MAKING THE BACKS AND SEATS THEREOF Solomon B. Raduns, Brooklyn, N.Y.(14-50 128th St., College Point, N.Y.) Filed July 13, 1959, Ser. No.826,694 14 Claims. (Cl. 267--110) The present invention relates to analuminum tubular chair or furniture construction and it particularlyrelates to a method of forming the back and seat thereof.

It is among the objects of the present invention to provide a simplemethod of lacing backing and seating strand material between separatedlegs, particularly parallel legs formed of aluminum tubing so that apermanent and strong support structure will be formed and at the sametime a structure attractive to the eye.

Another object is to provide a novel method of weaving backs and seatsfor tubular aluminum furniture so that the back and seat structure willbe formed strong, firm, rigid and of attractive appearance and willsupport substantial weight with sufhcient give to provide a comfortableseat and rest and at the same time with ability to restore itself to theoriginal appearance when not in use.

Still further objects and advantages will appear in the more detaileddescription set forth below, it being understood, however, that thismore detailed description is given by way of illustration andexplanation only and not by way of limitation, since various changestherein may be made by those skilled in the art without departing fromthe scope and spirit of the present invention.

In accomplishing the above objects it has been found most satisfactory,according to one embodiment of the present invention, to use a vinylpolymer tubing, such as a co-polyrner of vinyl chloride and vinylacetate or vinyl chloride or vinylidene chloride or a vinyl chloride copolymer itself.

Desirably the tubing is extruded so that it will have a wall thicknessbetween /6 to /3 of the outside tube diameter and the amount ofplasticizer should be reduced to such an extent that the polymer orco-polymer will restore itself to its original length when stretched.

Desirably the co-polymer will permit ready stretching to an elongationof 10% to with the product readily restoring itself to its originallength when the stress is removed.

Desirably this tubing is then strung on to engagement or hook memberswhich may be positioned along the back of or along the sides ofseparated or parallel tubular members forming the sides of the back orthe sides of the seat of the tubular aluminum chair, lounge or otherarticle of furniture.

in the preferred embodiment of the present invention there are providedrows of engagement members or hooks along the backs of the tubularmembers which are positioned in parallel rows both interiorly andexteriorly.

The outside engagement members are designed to receive the loops of thetubular vinyl polymer as it is strung across the backs of the chair toform the seat thereof.

After this has been done tightly, then the transverse strandsalternately are moved upwardly or downwardly across the other strandsand looped on to one of the inside hooks so as to give a criss-crossstructure.

It has been found that this extra looping will give satisfactorycontinuation to the tubular material and at the same time give a strongcriss-cross structure which will adequately support the body of the userand at the same time give suflicient yieldability, while quicklyrestoring itself to its original length.

The positioning of the strands in a series of offset, oblique planes,rather than of lying parallel in one plane, gives a much better supportstructure.

Furthermore, additionally to lock these strands in position, an extralength of the same size or wider tubular stock may be positioned betweenthe loops and between the hooks, and the hooks may then be forcedtogether to lock the structure in position.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists ofthe novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts ashereinafter more specifically described, and illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, wherein is shown an embodiment of the invention,but it is to be understood that changes, variations and modificationscan be resorted to which fall within the scope of the claims hereuntoappended.

In the drawings wherein like reference characters denote correspondingparts throughout the several views:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view showing the vinyl loop structure asit is formed by first looping the strands on the outside hooks and thencross looping on the inside hooks.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary top perspective view of one of the engagementhook structures, before attachment to one of the side aluminum tubularmembers and before the looping has been accomplished, upon an enlargedscale as compared to FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view showing an alternative viewwhere the criss-cross looping is accomplished with two hook members orclips at each side.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary side elevational view showing the prior artmethod of applying the tubular vinyl polymer, which results in muchgreater cost and much greater labor than the arrangements shown in FIGS.1 and 3.

FIG. 5 is a front elevational view similar to FIG. 1 showing theoriginal looping arrangement in the lower part thereof before thecriss-cross looping has been formed, this being an illustration of theoriginal stage of the looping arrangement and the upper part thereofshowing how the original parallel strands have been pulled and stretchedand hooked into a cries-cross looping with a criss-cross loop beingshown by itself above the two side members.

FIG. 6 shows an alternative form of hook arrangement as compared to FIG.2, in which the hooks are alternated so that the hook on one side willbe opposite the space between the two hooks on the other side.

FIG. 7 is a front elevational view similar to FIG. 1 showing the use ofan additional tubular strand with the hooks closed thereon to lock thearrangement in position.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3, there are shown the tubular members A whichmay be the side portions of a back or seat of an aluminum chair orchaise lounge.

Mounted on the back of the tubular members A are the elongated hookmembers B, with the rows of hooks C upon which the tubing is looped.Extending between the hooks are the tubing strands D.

of the hook structure B.

Then the transverse strands, as indicated at 12, are alternated so thatone strand is pulled up, as indicated at 13, and looped over an insidehook 14, while the other strand 15 at the other side is pulled up andlooped over an inside hook 16.

This can be accomplished with a continuous looped pattern, as indicatedat E at the top of FIG. 1, or with a single looped pattern as indicatedat F in the lower part of FIG. 1.

In the lower part of FIG. 1 the loops on the hooks 11 are first formedand then one strand is pulled up as indicated at 13 to be looped overthe inside hook 14, while the other strand is pulled up, as indicated at15, to be looped up over the inside hook 16.

The strip B may be as long as desired and it has the openings 17 whichreceive the mounting screws 18.

In FIG. 3 is shown two single clips 19 with the side hooks 20 on theoutside and 21 on the inside.

A single loop circular strand may then be looped as indicated at 22 onthe outside hooks and then the strands 23 and 24 are pulled across eachother and respectively looped as indicated at 26 and 27 on the insidehooks 21.

It will be noted that this is quite a contrast to the winding method asshown in FIG. 4 in which the strands 28 must be laboriously coiled at 29around each of the side legs or tubular members A. This arrangementshown in FIG. 4 results in a tremendous amount of labor and veryexpensive construction, and where one strand 28 is broken the wholestrand will be loosened.

In the construction shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 the strands D and G are socompressed by the hooks that they will lock in position, even thoughthere may be a cut or break in the strands.

In the arrangement of FIG. 5 is shown the initial looping arrangement ofFIG. 1 in which the strands 50 and 51 are parallel and have not yet beendrawn across one another in criss-cross fashion to form the additionalloops on the inside hooks, as indicated in FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 5 it will be noted that the parallel strands have beenlooped from the dot and dash positions at 52 and 53 into the solid lineposition of 54 and 55 where they will engage the outside hooks 56 and57.

This may be done with a single loop as indicated in FIG. 5 or acontinuous strand which may be looped as indicated at 54 and 55 uponeach of the outside hooks corresponding to the hooks 56 and 57.

In the first step the inside hooks 58 and 59 are left without beinglooped.

At the next step the portion 60 of the strand 50 is pulled out andaround as indicated by the arrow 61 to loop around the inside hook 59while the portion 62 of the strand 51 is pulled out and around asindicated by the arrows 63 to loop around the inside hook 58. This willgive the inside loops 64 and 65 with the criss-cross pattern asindicated at 66.

The final loop strand is illustrated directly above FIG. 5 and it willbe noted that the upper strand 5!] has the inside loop 64 and theoutside loop 54 while the lower strand 51 has the inside loop 65 and theoutside loop 55.

Although single loops are shown in FIG. 5 it is obvious that the sameresult may be accomplished with a continuous piece of tubing whichextends from the top to the bottom of the vertical members 67 and 68 andwhich at first has been looped around the outside hooks 56 and 57, firston one side and then on the other side or two or three continuousstrands may be employed.

In FIG. 6 is shown a hook strip H in which the hooks alternate in theirposition along the sides of the strip, which renders it more readilypossible to perform the winding operation of FIG. 1.

til

The strip H has an attachment opening 75 with the alternating hooks 76on one side and 77 on the other side, the base 7 8 will be curved so asto conform to the curvature of the tubular members 67 and 68 of FIG. 5.

In FIG. 7 is shown the use of additional locking tubular strands J, K, Land M which are positioned between the inside hooks and 86 and theoutside hooks 87 and 88 which are pressed together to compress theoutside loops 39 and 9t and the inside loops 91 and 92 against thestrands J, K, L and M.

The strands I, K, L and M may be separate strands or part of the samecontinuous strands N and P which have been wrapped around the inside andoutside hook-s 85 to 38 all inclusive.

As shown there is a parallel winding at 93 and 94but this parallelwinding may be converted into a criss-cross winding as shown in FIGS. 1and 5 before the additional strands J, K, L and M have been placed inposition and the hooks closed.

In this arrangement, a strand such as indicated at 95 will be looped at96 around an inside hook 86 and then its end will be looped as indicatedat 97 around the outside hook 88 and the upper part of the strand willextend around the tubular member 93 as indicated at 99 to form aparallel strand 100 above the strand 95.

This operation may be successively repeated on alternate sides to givethe parallel strands as indicated at 93 and 94-.

As indicated at 101 the end of a strand may be turned upwardly to form astrand K between the inside and outside hooks 85 and 8'7.

It is thus apparent that the applicant has provided a simple, durable,inexpensive method of forming the back and seat or body sup-portportions of tubular aluminum furniture, which may be widely employed inconnection with forming support structures for the back or seat or bodyof the user and which will not release when one or more strands may beaccidentally broken.

Although vinyl polymer material is preferred, other stretchable orplastic tubular members may be applied, and even solid body supportstrands may be applied in this method.

Furthermore the same arrangement may be applied to other than tubularaluminum furniture with other types of metal furniture and even woodenfurniture to give desired body support structures.

As many changes could be made in the above aluminum tubular furnitureand methods of making the backs and seats thereof, and many widelydifferent embodiments of this invention could he made without departurefrom the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter containedin the above description shall be interpreted as illustrative and not ina limiting sense.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of theinvention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, what isclaimed is:- l

1. A method of making the body supporting structures for back, seat andbody support members for furniture having parallel side attachmentmembers including tubular side structural elements with rows of outsideand inside engagement members from tubular stretchable plastic extrudedsoft vinyl polymer strands which comprise looping the strands betweenthe side members and looping them around the engagement members, saidtubular vinyl polymer strands in their final position extendingalternately from side to side from the back of a tubular side element tothe front of a tubular side element with the cross strands crossing eachother midway between the tubular side elements and respectively beingobliquely inclined so that they will extend below and above each otheron the sides of said crossing and the ends of the strands being loopedaround the rear sides of the tubular side elements.

2. A method of making the body supporting structures for back, seat andbody support members for furniture having parallel side attachmentmembers including tubular side structural elements with rows of outsideand inside engagement members from tubular stretchable plastic strandswhich comprise looping the strands between the side members and loopingthem around the engagement members, said strands consisting of astretchable vinyl copolymer, said tubular vinyl polymer strands in theirfinal position extending alternately from side to side from the back ofa tubular side element to the front of a tubular side element wtih thecross strands crossing each other midway between the tubular sideelements and respectively being obliquely inclined so that they willextend below and above each other on the sides of said crossing and theends of the strands being looped around the rear sides of the tubularside elements.

3. A method of making the body supporting structures for back, seat andbody support members for furniture having parallel side attachmentmembers including tubular side structural elements with rows of outsideand inside engagement members from tubular stretchable plastic extrudedsoft vinyl polymer strands which comprise looping the strands betweenthe side members and looping them around the engagement members, saidstrands being first looped around the outside engagement members inparallelism and then alternate members being pulled to the side andlooped around the inside engagement members to give a criss-crosseffect, said tubular vinyl polymer strands in their final positionextending alternatively from side to side from the back of a tubularside element to the front of a tubular side element with the crossstrands crossing each other midway between the tubular side elements andrespectively being obliquely inclined so that they will extend below andabove each other on the sides of said crossing and the ends of thestrands being looped around the rear sides of the tubular side elements.

4. A method of making the body supporting structures for back, seat andbody support members for furniture having parallel side attachmentmembers including tubular side structural elements with rows of outsideand inside engagement members from tubular stretchable plastic extrudedsoft vinyl polymer strands which comprises looping the strands betweenthe side members and looping them around the engagement members, saidstrands being caused to cross each other by reason of the inside loopingon the inside engagement members, said tubular vinyl polymer strands intheir final position eX- tending alternately from side to side from theback of a tubular side element to the front of a tubular side elementwith the cross strands crossing each other midway between the tubularside elements and respectively being obliquely inclined so that theywill extend below and above each other on the sides of said crossing andthe ends of the strands being looped around the rear sides of thetubular side elements.

5. A method of making the body supporting structures for back, seat and'body support members for furniture having parallel side attachmentmembers including tubular side structural elements with rows of outsideand inside engagement members from tubular stretchable plastic extrudedsoft vinyl polymer strands which comprises looping the strands betweenthe side members and looping them around the engagement members, saidengagement members consisting of rows of hooks positioned on the backportions of the support members and arranged on each side of the supportmembers, said tubular vinyl polymer strands in their final positionextending alternately from side to side from the back of a tubular sideelement to the front of a tubular side element with the cross strandscrossing each other midway between the tubular side elements andrespectively being obliquely inclined so that they will extend below andabove each other on the sides of said crossing and the ends of thestrands being looped around the rear sides of the tubular side elements.

6. A criss-cross stranded back, seat and body support structure forfurniture including tubular side structural elements having a pluralityof tubular stretchable plastic extruded soft vinyl polymer strandslooped in a crisscross pattern around the sides of the structure, saidtubular vinyl polymer strands in their final position extendingalternately from side to side from the back of a tubular side element tothe front of a tubular side element with the cross strands crossing eachother midway between the tubular side elements and respectively beingobliquely inclined so that they will extend below and above each otheron the sides of said crossing and the ends of the strands being loopedaround the rear sides of the tubular side elements.

7. A criss-cross stranded back, seat and body support structure forfurniture including tubular side structural elements having a pluralityof tubular stretchable plastic strands looped in a criss-cross patternaround the sides of the structure, said strands consisting of extrudedtubular vinyl polymer, said tubular vinyl polymer strands in their finalposition extending alternately from side to side from the back of atubular side element to the front of a tubular side element with thecross strands crossing each other midway between the tubular side:elements and respectively eing obliquely inclined so that they willextend below and above each other on the sides of said crossing and theends of the strands being looped around the rear sides of the tubularside elements.

8. A criss-cross stranded back, seat and body support structure forfurniture having a plurality of tubular stretchable plastic extrudedsoft vinyl polymer strands looped in a criss-cross pattern around thesides of the structure, said sides consisting of parallel tubularaluminum members, said tubular vinyl polymer strands in their finalposition extending alternately from side to side from the back of atubular side element to the front of a tubular side element with thecross strands crossing each other midway between the tubular sideelements and respectively being obliquely inclined so that they willextend below and above each other on the sides of said crossing and theends of the strands being looped around the rear sides of the tubularside elements.

9. A tubular furniture construction having parallel spaced side tubularframes, each frame having a front side and a rear side, parallel rows ofoppositely facing hook members having mountings on the rear sides of theframes with the hooks facing each other and being directed inwardlytoward each other from their mounting on the rear sides of the framesand a plurality of stretchable flexible tubular vinyl polymer strandsextending obliquely across the frames arranged in crossing oblique pairsof strands which strands extend in each pair from a lower position onone of the sides of the tubular frames to an upper position on one ofthe opposite sides of tubular frames with the strands obliquely crossingone another midway between the tubular frames and being alternatelylooped at their ends around the opposite inside and outside facinghooks.

10. The construction of claim 9, said hooks being formed on a strip ofmetal mounted on the rear sides of the tubular frames and havinginturned hooks projecting outwardly and then inwardly from the sides ofthe strip and screw attachments for said strip to the rear sides of saidtubular frames.

11. The method of forming the vinyl strand arrangement of claim 9 whichcomprises first lacing the strands across the front sides of the tubularframes with the strands all in parallelism and engaging the outsidehooks and then stretching and pulling each strand so as to alternatelyengage an inside hook on the rear face and form a criss-cross pattern ofvinyl polymer strands.

8 12. The construction of claim 9, the connections be- References Citedin the file of this patent tween said loops extending obliquely acrossthe front UNITED STATES PATENTS sides of the tubular frame from the topedge of one hook to the bottom edge of an opposite hook. 11423365 ArnoldJuly 1-922 13. The construction of claim 9, an extra Strand of 5 188,560Todd 1940 tubular vinyl polymer being positioned between the fac-2726713 Turner 1955 in ends of the hooks and between the bottoms of the2731077 Turner 1956 loops to hold said loops in position inside of saidhooks. FOREIGN PATENTS 14. The construction of claim 9 said vinylpolymer 809,315 France Man 1 1937 strands consisting of a COII'UUUOUSintegral strip of vlny 10 1,149,417 France 26, 1957 polymer tubing lacedaround the tubular frames.

